The MONSTER GARAGE GYM/MAROSCHER COACHING LOG is a weekly Coaching Log by MGG owner, 2-Time WPC World Powerlifting Champion, Eric Maroscher, and is geared to the new to intermediate powerlifter. LIVE, LEARN and PASS ON.
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THIS WEEK’S Monster Garage Gym/Maroscher Coaching Log: NEW YEAR NEW FRONTIER
*NEW MGG COACHING LOG POSTED HERE EVERY WEEK!!!!
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As one chapter ends, another begins and so goes this great journey of ours called Powerlifting.
As we embark on a new year, 2018, as responsible and forward thinking humans, we look back with a critical lens at the prior year. Building on the achievements, learning from the times we fell short, tweaking and honing the areas in between, and constantly working to educate ourselves as lifelong learners, for our goal is always to be a better version of our own selves. This assessment we apply to all of the aspects of our lives, our families, work, spirituality or belief system, as well as our lifting.
Some lack the ability to critically assess. These are the lifters you encounter at your gym who continue to fall into the same hole of mistakes over and again. Often this is a trend in their personal lives as well, as all four of the pillars of our life (family, work, spirituality/universe, powerlifting) do bleed into one another. These lifters are like an album with a scratch in it that causes the same part of a song to play over and over and over again without progressing to the rest of the songs. (Yes, that was an record player reference my millennial friends….feel free to look it up).
Others do possess the ability to critically assess, yet they lack the ability to act on that assessment, and like the prior category of lifter, they too repeat the same mistakes and shortcomings, even though they have clearly identified where the change in the direction needs to be. As a follower of EliteFTS you are a seeker of information and that is most likely because you are also critically assessing yourself in an effort to become the best powerlifter you can become.
As you have just closed the chapter in your powerlifting book, titled 2017, you are preparing to open the new chapter, 2018. As you contemplate moving forward, it is of critical importance that forward is in fact the correct direction for you to move into. Sometimes you might actually have to temporarily take a couple of steps backward in order to move forward for the greater duration and greater benefit. This can be not only a difficult critical assessment to observe, but even more so, an extremely difficult assessment to implement.
With regard to moving backwards, to ultimately move forward toward a more powerful version of yourself not only takes insight, but the self confidence to hit the pause button in order to move onward via a slight detour. Hitting the pause button is difficult as it can feel like others are moving past you, but again, the big picture is and has always been, you vs you. The moment you make decisions about your own training or physical well-being based on another lifter, or how others might see or think of you, is the moment you have relinquished control and handed it to another. This is a fatal mistake that many learn when it is already too late.
To help illustrate this entire concept, critical assessment, application of that assessment, taking a step backward to ultimately progress forward is what WPC World Powerlifting Champion Steve Brock has embodied as he continues his path toward his own personal goals and his own personal powerlifting journey to become the strongest and most powerful version of himself that he can be.
A little background about Steve. Steve is a pupil of the legendary Ernie Frantz and cut his teeth training at Frantz Health Studio/Frantz Gym in the early 1990’s. As a member of the Frantz Power Team, Steve qualified for then flew to Pescara, Italy to compete in the 1990, WPC Worlds, and as a nineteen year old, successfully represented his country, team and gym by ultimately winning his division. Now closer to 50 than 40 years of age, Steve is still a significant force in the powerlifting community as he still routinely squats a grand and presses in the mid 700’s, recently totaling 2,401 LBS.
Surgery successfully removed about 50 loose bone and cartilage fragments. A very successful surgery.
Steve is very good at critically assessing where he is in his training, but is also very good at the far more difficult, hitting the pause button when needed, as a way to ultimately move forward. Case and point, Steve was having significant shoulder pain and shoulder mobility issues. Not your typical, “I can work through this” pain and mobility issues, but some issues that needed to be addressed medically. Steve had critically assessed this situation, then took the time to consult experts in the field. Ultimately, although Steve had been and could continue to push through the pain and deal somewhat with the mobility issues, this metal on metal approach would shorten his powerlifting career and as a master aged lifter, you want every year and even month you can get ‘under the bar.’ So after critically assessing the issues, after educating himself with regard to all of the possible scenarios, Steve acted on his assessment and had surgery to correct this issue. Having this surgery meant Steve would have to hit the pause button for a bit with his training, but ultimately, he would significantly extend the time until his powerlifting expiration date by taking the time to be properly repaired and heal now.
*Remember, you can take the time on the frontside, or have to make the time on the backside, and sometimes it is too late in the game to make the full recovery. Long story short, Steve had the shoulder surgery and he is rehabbing today in order to compete in the future and compete for a longer duration. Sound decisions like these are part of the reason Steve has been a successful powerlifter from his teens and a world title through today in his late 40’s. The accompanying video shows Steve's first days following his surgery, back in the gym. *We will be following Steve's rehab now and again over the months (via our coaching logs) so you can follow his progress as injury and often surgery are part of the world of competitive powerlifting. Following his rehab and training around his surgery might be of use to a good chunk of you who follow our coaching logs. Steve, incidentally is using the principle theory of 30% transfer in his training, thus working the "good" arm/shoulder/bicep, as much as possible, in addition to the other parts of the body through regular training. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc5ha8Bip-U&feature=youtu.be]
As you assess your 2017, your training program, your nutrition, and everything related to it, you might not have to critically assess what someone with decades of training might face (it is not the years, it is the mileage as Indiana Jones so famously states in ROTLA) but minimally, either a failure to critically assess or failure to act on the needed correction to that assessment can spell a poor showing in 2018.
The purpose of this coaching log is to share information from those how have not only been there and done that, but who have successfully been there and successfully done that. Heed our suggested advice and take some time, put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and do a full assessment of your training, competing and all facets of your 2017 powerlifting and not only assess it, but implement the proper corrections. Don’t just hope for a strong(er) 2018, take the steps and make it happen.
Wishing you the best in your training and competitions. Ever Onward, Eric Maroscher, Owner: MONSTER GARAGE GYM
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